The present invention relates to a flat electric connector which can simplify the assembly of wire harnesses for electrical equipments and the installation of wire harness in the latter, and a wire harness having the flat electric connector.
In general, in order to interconnect the components in an electrical equipment, a wire harness is assembled by connecting electric connectors to a network of wires laid in accordance with the layout of the components and then winding with tapes so as to bind the connectors and wires together.
Thus assembled wire harnesses are installed in the electric equipments moving on the assembly conveyor. It follows therefore that the step for attaching the connectors such as crimp type ring terminals over the terminal bolts of the electric components and tightening the nuts must be accomplished quickly and positively.
When two prior art ring terminals as shown in FIG. 8 are mounted on a single bolt and a nut is tightened to clamp them securely, it occurs very frequently that because a clamping portion 7 is thickner than a ring portion 8, the upper terminal rides over the crimping portion 7 of the lower terminal so that the upper and lower ring portions are separated from each other.
The present invention overcomes the above and other problems encountered when the prior art terminals are used in assemblying wire harnesses and provides electric connectors which can attain the snug contacts between the contact plates or rings of the upper and lower terminals.
With the crimp type flat ring terminals in accordance with the present invention, a plurality of wire harness elements can be taped together.
In FIG. 9 is shown the prior art process for assemblying wire harnesses. Wire harness elements A and B as shown in FIG. 9(a) are added with branches A' and B' as shown in FIG. 9(b). These branches A' and B' are connected to a common flat terminal 9 as shown in FIG. 9(c) and the wires are bundled together with tape 10 as shown in FIG. 9(d).
A crimp type ring terminal as shown in FIG. 8(b) or FIG. 8(c) is used as the common terminal 9. A crimping tool or the like is used to connect the branches A' and B' to the common terminal 9 or 9'. Therefore the wire harness elements A and B, which are long, must be brought close to the crimping tool or the like so that the crimping operation becomes difficult.
With the interlocking terminals 1 and 3 in accordance with the present invention, the assembly of a wire harness is much simplified as shown in FIG. 10. A small terminal 1 and a large terminal 3 are connected to branches A' and B', respectively, by using a crimping tool or the like. In like manner, components are connected so that wire harness elements A and B as shown in FIG. 8(b) are assembled. Next as shown in FIG. 8(c), the elements A and B are connected by interlocking the small and large terminals 1 and 3 as will be described in detail below. Unlike the assembly process shown in FIG. 9, no crimping tool or the like is needed. The small and large terminals 1 and 3 can be interengaged securely before or after the wires are taped as shown in FIG. 9(d).
As described above, with the interlocking terminals in accordance with the present invention, the assembly of wire harnesses can be much simplified.